The Lord’s Supper shows us that creation participates in Christ’s death and resurrection. By identifying his body and blood with bread and wine, Jesus shows that he came to redeem the whole world. This fallen creation will be set free. Grace crucifies and resurrects nature. The kingdom is not an escape from this world, nor is it “other worldly.” The kingdom is *this* world transformed, renewed, and restored through the death and resurrection of Christ.
Bread and wine are not merely nature, but culture. Bread and wine are the product of human labor acting upon nature. So the Lord’s Supper shows us that the scope of Christ’s redemptive work includes the products of human culture. The fruits of man taking dominion over the created order will be treasures brought into the new heavens and earth. The products of our fulfillment of the creation mandate will be woven into God’s new creation.
The Lord’s Supper is the whole kingdom summed up in a simple meal. The Lord’s Supper is faith, hope, and love rolled into one: Faith because we trust Christ gives himself to us in and through the elements; hope because we know this feast is a foretaste of the final eschatological banquet to come; and love because here is divine love made food, the preeminent way we experience Christ’s love for us and express our love for fellow disciples.
The Lord’s Supper is an eschatological banquet, a sign of things to come. When the spies went into the Promised Land, they brought back giant clusters of grapes (Numbers 13) — a sign of what would be Israel’s once they took possession of the land. The Lord’s Supper — its culture, its elements, its festivity, its joy, it fellowship — is a preview of the new creation.
TPC Pastor's Page 